[IRTalk] SUNScholar/Ranking - Libopedia - July 2016

[Wynand Van Der Walt]

Dear Colleagues,

Congratulations to those institutions who feature on the list.

I do, however, feel compelled to respond to previous e-mails in order  
to ensure that possible incorrect information do not create  
unjustified impressions. I do not agree with the impact being assigned  
to a change in repository software as the current repository software  
used by UJ (and others) is fully open standards compliant in terms of  
accessing information (harvesting protocols etc.). There are a  
considerable number of sites on the ranking that can testify to the  
fact that the specific application is compliant in terms of open  
access (OA).

I would imagine that one of the possible reasons for a fall in the  
ranking might be due to a change in a the domain name which would most  
definitely impact on back-links etc. as per MajesticSEO and ahrefs  
(the two databases feeding information to determine the visibility of  
sites - a process which in itself takes time), as well as  
re-harvesting on Google & Google Scholar (extraction processes).  
During a change-over process a drop in ranking can be expected, but I  
am more than certain that the January edition of the rankings will be  
indicative of the true impact of repositories irrespective of software  
applications used.

Regards

Wynand


Quoting Ina Smith <Ina at assaf.org.za>:

> Dear Lazarus
>
> One can definitely see the impact of not using open standards/open  
> sources software, which is part of the philosophy of open access. It  
> had a huge impact on the UJ repository, which is unfortunate.
>
> Kind regards
> Ina
>
> From: Lazarus Matizirofa [mailto:lazarus.matizirofa at nrf.ac.za]
> Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2016 11:00 AM
> To: Ina Smith <Ina at assaf.org.za>; Hilton Gibson  
> <hilton.gibson at gmail.com>; irtalk at lists.lib.sun.ac.za
> Cc: barries at uj.ac.za
> Subject: Re: [IRTalk] SUNScholar/Ranking - Libopedia - July 2016
>
> Dear Colleagues
>
> Congratulations to SA's OA frontrunners, well done Hilton. I  
> acknowledged your team's work at the NRF's Centres of Excellence  
> Managers' Forum which was hosted at Stellenbosch yesterday.
>
> Something to note, UJ was number 6 or 7 last ranking. Its repository  
> moved to another commercial OA platform suddenly it slipped to the  
> 50s in the African repository rankings!
>
> Regards,
> Lazarus Matizirofa
> Knowledge Management Corporate
> National Research Foundation
>
>
>
> Sent from Samsung tablet
>
> [cid:image001.jpg at 01D1E8BF.88C7D450]
> Meiring Naude Road
> Brummeria
> PO Box 2600
> Pretoria, 0001
> South Africa
> http://www.nrf.ac.za<http://www.nrf.ac.za/>
>
>
> Lazarus Matizirofa
> Team Leader: DCCM
> Knowledge Management Corporate (KMC)
> Tel: +27 12 481 4016
> Email: lazarus.matizirofa at nrf.ac.za<mailto:lazarus.matizirofa at nrf.ac.za>
>
>
> http://www.nrf.ac.za/email-legal-notice.php
> -------- Original message --------
> From: Ina Smith <Ina at assaf.org.za<mailto:Ina at assaf.org.za>>
> Date:27/07/2016 21:34 (GMT+02:00)
> To: Hilton Gibson  
> <hilton.gibson at gmail.com<mailto:hilton.gibson at gmail.com>>,  
> irtalk at lists.lib.sun.ac.za<mailto:irtalk at lists.lib.sun.ac.za>
> Subject: Re: [IRTalk] SUNScholar/Ranking - Libopedia - July 2016
> Dear Hilton
>
> Thank you so much for continuing to document the rankings so that it  
> can be monitored. This helps quite a bit. Hopefully we can also do  
> this for repositories all over Africa. It is of great help when  
> trying to monitor own IR progress made, and to influence  
> institutional strategy and policy. The visibility of research via  
> the IR in the end contributes to the overall visibility of an  
> individual university.
>
> Congratulations to Stellenbosch University – 85 is the highest rank  
> an African repository achieved this far. This is out of a total  
> number of 2 271 internationally. The number of African repositories  
> have grown quite a bit, and more and more they appear among the SA  
> repositories, which is great. Slowly but surely Africa’s lost  
> science is shared with the world, and is starting to have an impact,  
> for others to benefit.
>
> Kind regards
> Ina
>
>
> From: IRTalk [mailto:irtalk-bounces at lists.lib.sun.ac.za] On Behalf  
> Of Hilton Gibson
> Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2016 4:16 PM
> To: irtalk at lists.lib.sun.ac.za<mailto:irtalk at lists.lib.sun.ac.za>;  
> fabteam at lists.lib.sun.ac.za<mailto:fabteam at lists.lib.sun.ac.za>
> Subject: [IRTalk] SUNScholar/Ranking - Libopedia - July 2016
>
> ​
> ​Hi All,
>
> The July 2016 Webometrics ratings have been released.
> See: http://repositories.webometrics.info/en/Ranking_africa
> And:
> ​
> http://wiki.lib.sun.ac.za/index.php/SUNScholar/Ranking
>
> Well done to those who achieved or improved their ranking!​
>
> Cheers
>
> hg



Wynand van der Walt
Rhodes University Library
Head Librarian: Technical Services